


The Vixen

by taiyakisoba



Category: Original Work
Genre: F/M, Kitsune, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Monstergirl, Non-Sexual Slavery, Romance, foxgirl
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-13
Updated: 2015-11-20
Packaged: 2018-05-01 10:31:50
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 22,050
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5202542
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/taiyakisoba/pseuds/taiyakisoba
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When a human prisoner-of-war is forced to become the servant of an arrogant female kitsune, he decides to bide his time and wait for a chance to escape. But extricating himself from the clutches of that mocking, manipulative vixen proves more difficult than he ever expected...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Servant

**Author's Note:**

  * For [/d/](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=%2Fd%2F).



When I lost my job and joined the army, I didn’t think I’d ever see any real combat. With the Islamic State already bombed to hell and everything gone quiet in the Ukraine, I expected to be pushing papers around an office somewhere with an occasional visit to a firing range.

Well, I saw combat alright, but can you really call it combat when your side gets its ass resoundingly kicked? In our defence we were up against an army we hadn’t been trained to fight: an army of monsters from another dimension. Not tentacled monstrosities (although there were a few kooky looking things like that among them) - real monsters, like in the storybooks: centaurs and harpies and fox people and wolf people and lizard people. Our war was against a bunch of fairytales, and like in the fairytales they had magic.

Oh yeah, and dragons. It turned out tanks and helicopter gunships were no match against dragons. 

Nothing's really a match for dragons.

Don’t ask me for any details of this first battle against the therians: you probably know more about it than I do, especially if you’ve ever watched more than five minutes of the History Channel. No, I didn’t really see much combat since I ended up on the receiving end of the swing of a dragon’s tail about five minutes into our initial engagement. I was knocked off my feet into the air and when I landed everything went black.

\-------------------

Being dead didn’t seem so bad. I was aching all over but I was also warm and everything was peaceful, except for a rather annoying beeping sound.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

I opened my eyes and realised I wasn’t dead. I was in a hospital, lying in a bed with the sheets pulled up to my neck.

I grabbed the sheet and pulled it off. I wanted to check if I had everything. Apart from the bandage around my torso everything was where it should be. I made doubly sure my dick was still there. 

A leg I could do without, damn, even a leg and an arm. But I was very attached to my dick. 

I lay back. My ribs ached. So that explained the bandage. I lifted a hand to my head. Yeah, another bandage there, too. I must have landed on my head after taking that spill thanks to the dragon. 

I lay there wondering what had happened to everyone else. There was a curtain around my bed so I couldn’t see how full the ward was. From what I'd seen there had to be more casualties, though. 

The curtain was swept aside while I was looking at it and a woman dressed in white walked in, her face buried in a clipboard. Ah, the doctor. She’d have some answers.

“How are you feeling?” she asked, not bothering to look up. 

“Okay I guess,” I said. “My ribs are aching like hell, though. Say, doc, how did the battle end up? We won, right?”

Soft laughter from the doctor. “I’m afraid not.” 

She looked up from her clipboard and I saw then that she wasn’t human. Her skin was green, shimmering with the soft glistening of scales. Her eyes were large and turqoise, the pupils slitted like a reptile’s. I scrambled back away from her and she smiled with a mouth full of needle-sharp teeth.

“Don’t be alarmed,” she said. “You’re safe here. Your government has surrendered to us unconditionally so you’re no longer an enemy.”

I slumped back against the head of the bed. “We... we lost?”

She nodded. “Badly.”

I relaxed, then. So the war was over. I’d survived. We’d lost, but I’d survived.

“So when are you sending me back home?” I asked.

The doctor chuckled. “Oh, you’re not going home. The surrender was unconditional. As soon as you’re well enough to work, you’ll be found a job suited to your abilities.”

“You’re enslaving us?”

The lizard woman sighed. “’Enslavement’ is such an unpleasant word. Think of it as more of a ‘hostile takeover’. The Therian Empire has a labour shortage, so you’ll be working for us, now.”

“As a soldier?”

She gave my arm a squeeze and laughed. “Not likely with those puny muscles! Now get some rest and heal up quickly.”

She turned and pulled the curtain closed with her long, scaly green tail.

\--------

The hospital filled up with wounded soldiers quickly and I soon learned that what the scaly doctor had said was true: we’d lost the war only a short while after it had begun. Most of the guys, like me, were resigned to their fate, but some caused trouble. That only happened a few times, since an alarm would spread through the ward and orderlies would appear - oni, I learned later - and the troublemakers would be manhandled and swiftly sedated. 

I wasn’t in the ward for long. Their medicine was better than ours and there was some magic involved, too, although it seemed my wounds weren't serious enough to need magic beyond some cursory scans. The doctor gave me a clean bill of health and I was escorted out of the hospital.

My first view of the world outside as I was bundled onto their equivalent of a bus and driven away was a shock to the system. I was in a big city, with tall buildings all around, but unlike our blocky skyscrapers the buildings here in the Therian Capital were whimsical masses of minarets and spires. The streets were filled with monster people of every variety, the air, too, with flying monsters such as harpies and tiny fairies. Occasionally, a huge dragon would pass overhead. 

I sat at the window gawking with my fellow passengers. But our awe and amazement at the sights was tempered by the anxiety of the fate awaiting us.

The bus arrived at a large building and we were escorted off. Although we felt like prisoners, we weren't shackled: I guess we had nowhere to go even if we did escape.

We were taken into a room and told to sit down in front of a huge screen. We watched a movie which told us all about the world we'd found ourselves in.

The guy beside me jogged me with an elbow. “Hey, buddy. You noticed how almost all the important jobs here are done by women?”

I had noticed. The officer who was in charge of us here was a woman as well, a wolf person - a lupine, I knew now. The movie told us all about the different species that inhabited this world. There were dozens of different therians, as they were called: minotaurs and vampires and medusas and slime-people and so on. I’m sure you’d probably meet all of the different species just by visiting a major city these days, but back then they were all new to us. 

The doctor, who I now knew was of the dragonnewt species, hadn’t been lying when she said that this world needed manpower. That, at least according to the movie, was their justification for conquering our world, although like the doctor the movie referred to it as a 'takeover'. 

There was a lot of information to take in. After a break we were taken to a room and interviewed individually about ourselves, our skills and experience, and given personality tests. The whole process reminded me of a job interview. Some of the questions were pretty personal and bizarre. 

We were then marched into a hall and divided into different groups. I was left standing with a bunch of guys who must have tested out as being similar to me. 

I looked about me. Damn, this was humiliating. 

“So what do you have for me?”

The voice was low but feminine, and I turned to see a female therian approach our group escorted by the dragonnewt in charge of us. Unlike some of the monsters I’d seen she wasn't all that different from a human. The first thing you noticed, though, were those two pointy ears poking up from the red-gold hair on her head and the light brown fur on her body. Her eyes were slanted, a deep gold, and she had a little snout which crinkled up as she looked us over. But by far her most unmistakeable and striking feature was her tail. It was long and tufted, ending in that thick brush that foxes have.

So this was a vulpine. I remembered from the video we'd watched that the fox people were called vulpines. She was clearly a civilian professional: dressed in a white blouse and a dark grey pencil skirt she was likely a business woman of some kind. I guess it makes sense that all humanoid creatures would end up wearing similar clothes. She was really quite shapely, with a nice pair of hips on her that balanced her not unsubstantial bust.

The vulpine looked us over in turn. When she came to me her lip curled and she turned to the dragonnewt beside her.

“Is this really all you’ve got?”

The dragonnewt glanced on her clipboard. “I’m afraid so. The human soldier-types are not really well-suited for domestic work, so there’s only these until we start bringing in civilian prisoners.”

The vulpine sighed. “Well, I guess this one will have to do.” She grabbed me by the upper arm and I flinched, which elicited a chuckle from her.

“Ha! Don’t worry, I’m not going to eat you or anything.” She grinned at me, her gold eyes gleamed with mockery 

“I know that,” I said. But did I really know that? Her smiling mouth was filled with canine teeth. Maybe this whole job-interview thing had been a trick and we’d just been examined and weighed to see what dish we’d be best suited to be cooked into.

She took my chin in her hand and looked me over. “You humans really are funny looking. Like a diminutive oni without horns.” She ran her finger through my hair ungently. “No, no horns.”

“Humans don’t have horns,” I said. 

“Humans don’t have horns, mistress.”

“Excuse me?”

She chuckled. “Don’t play dumb. You’re to refer to me as 'mistress' from now on. You understand, don’t you?”

Humiliated, but sensible enough to realise that arguing would not do me any good, I replied, “Yes, mistress.”

“Come on then,” she said. She glanced at the dragonnewt. “I’ll be taking this one, then. He seems to have some good upper body strength.” She squeezed my arm tightly and then dropped it with a chuckle when I gasped in pain.

She was stronger than she looked, and those long nails of hers were sharp as claws. 

She strode from the room and I followed her. As I walked behind her, I had the opportunity to appreciate her tail as it wagged back and forth. It was poking through a hole in her pencil skirt and I guessed there had to be a similar hole in her underwear for it to fit through as well.

I felt a familiar stirring. Ha. Even in this dire situation, being enslaved, I was thinking with my dick. I'd read there was some evolutionary advantage thing where humans get hornier in times of stress. I had no idea what was going to happen to me, but slavery, I figured, was better than being dead or maimed.

Now, you might think less of me for saying that: I mean, what happened to “death before dishonour”? Well, put yourself in my situation. Sometimes you just need to survive. Was I really going to wrest a weapon from one of these monster people, fight my way out, go underground and somehow work out a way to get back to Earth?

Anyway, Earth was already conquered. Hadn’t the dragonnewt said they were waiting for their first consignment of civilian prisoners?

I figured I’d keep my head down and wait it all out. A chance to escape might present itself at any moment.

She led me out of the building to her waiting car. Their cars were pretty similar to our own and this one was a luxury model. So the 'mistress' was rich. I was standing at the door wondering just how to open it when she clicked her teeth in annoyance and grabbed my hand. She placed it on the door and thin lines appeared in the finish and a handle popped out.

“Uh, okay,” I said. 

“I don’t usually open doors for servants,” said my mistress with a sniff to a question I hadn’t really asked. “Remember how to do it next time.”

I watched the city fly past the window from the back seat and rubbed at my arm, which was still sore from her earlier grabbing. She was strong. And yet her hand, when she'd placed it on mine, had been gentle. I'd also noticed a strong scent when she’d come close to me - not an unpleasant musky one like foxes back on Earth have, but a warm, spicy smell, her natural fragrance rather than a perfume.

We drove in silence for a while. When we stopped at an intersection she glanced back at me and said, “I guess all of this is a bit of a shock.”

“A bit,” I said. 

Her pretty golden eyes narrowed. “You don’t talk much, do you?”

“Not really, mistress,” I said, which was true.

“Well, you’ll have to learn to,” she said. “I don’t want you walking around doing your work in total silence like some kind of golem.” She sighed. “Golems are terrible company.” The sign visible through the windscreen remained an X as the opposing traffic continued to flow by and she looked back at me again. “You humans have names, right?”

“We do, mistress,” I said, and I told her mine.

“Strange name,” she said. “And a bit too long. I don’t think I’ll be able to remember it. I suppose I’ll just have to call you human.”

No names, just human and mistress. I frowned at the first taste of what slavery was like.

The X became an O and we drove on.

\--------------------------

She lived in an apartment, a nice one on the upper floor with a view over the city. As I said before, the city was full of whimsical buildings, and so the skyline visible through the window was like an illustration out of a child's picture book. If you’ve ever visited a therian city, you’ll know what I mean. The sort of thing no human had seen outside of their imagination until then.

My amazement amused my 'mistress', who watched me in silence from where she’d thrown herself on the couch.

After a while she got up and took me on a tour of the apartment, explaining my duties to me: as a domestic servant, I was to keep the apartment clean and tidy and organised at all times. 

She showed me the kitchen. “Can you prepare food?” she asked.

“Not well, mistress,” I said.

She laughed. “You can’t be worse than me,” she said. “That will be your job, too.”

I glanced about the room. There was a workbench and a pantry and a refrigerator and some machines I couldn’t identify, but something was missing. Then I realised: there was no oven.

I commented on the fact and the vulpine laughed. “Oh, of course. Humans prefer their food cooked, don't you?” She grabbed my chin and peeled back my lips. “Such blunt, helpless teeth, like a kit’s milk teeth. No wonder you put up such a poor fight. You’ve devolved.” She let go. “No, vulpines, like all civilised creatures, eat flesh. You will learn how to prepare it.” 

She opened up the refrigerator - it was actually more a freezer and filled with different cuts of meat. I figured I was expected to cut it much like a sushi chef cuts sashimi. I could probably do that. I was happy, though, when she shut the freezer. I wasn't sure which animal the meat had come from and my imagination had started to run wild.

The 'mistress' then took me down some stairs to a lower level of the apartment. This floor seemed to be used for storing things, like a basement. She opened a door and with a click of her fingers activated the light.

“This is your room.”

The room was simple, with only a bed and a small desk. There was no window. It was intentionally sparse in comparison to the rest of the apartment. You couldn’t call it a dungeon exactly, but it was no gilded cage.

She looked me up and down then took hold of the hem of my shirt. I was still wearing the clothes I’d been given in the hospital. “I’ll have a uniform made for you,” she said. She went to leave but stopped and grabbed my hand.

“No fur or scales.,” she muttered, running her fingers across my skin. “You must feel the cold. I’ll have the material of the uniform cut thick.” 

She dropped my hand, her golden eyes glittering in amusement at my surprise. “Get some sleep, human. I will train you in the rest of your duties later.”

I didn’t need to be told twice. I was exhausted and as soon as she left I crashed onto the bed and was asleep when my head hit the pillow.

\-------

I wasn't allowed to sleep very long. The 'mistress' was one of those workaholic types who demand the same of everyone around them. She took me through my duties, showing me how she liked things done. The tasks seemed pretty straightforward, although there were a lot of them. The apartment was not small and there were many places that needed to be kept clean and orderly. 

A particular problem was the mistress' fur. I noticed little red hairs everywhere and when I stared too long at a patch on the arm of the sofa, she grew embarrassed. For a moment I saw something like vulnerability in those wide gold eyes, but they quickly grew hard again.

“It’s moulting season,” she said. “So some hair loss is unavoidable. Be sure to get all of it.”

I told her I would. Although I felt humiliated, I had to maintain my servile façade if I was going to orchestrate an escape. I was laughing inside, though, at this embarrassing problem unique to fox-people. 

She left me to my work. As she walked away I found my eyes drawn to her tail again. It really was thick and fluffy. I wondered if she wagged it like a dog when she was happy. No doubt it'd be nice to touch. Those pointy ears of hers, too. 

Heh. I wondered if I could incapacitate her by scratching behind them.

An image sprang into my mind of the 'mistress' splayed out, her head in my lap, her leg shivering in pleasure as I ran my nails over an itchy spot behind one of her long, pointed ears.

Rather than funny, the idea was extremely arousing. Sure, she was a fox person, but despite the alien differences she was very beautiful. Actually, I'd decided the alien parts of her were what made her beautiful: they were a touch of the exotic, like when a woman has a beauty spot or a wonky tooth or some other feature that makes her all the more intriguing. 

Yeah, she was good looking. Shame she was such a bitch, though.

Wait, no. A bitch was a female dog. She was a... what do they call a female fox? 

Oh yeah. A vixen. 

After she left the apartment I got to work cleaning the place. It was good to have something to do, since it distracted me from thoughts of my future. The vixen’s apartment was not too different from one of our own, and I noted the lack of feminine knick-knacks and the overall Spartan orderliness of it. It was a high-powered business woman’s apartment, with appliances in the kitchen that had barely been used, a wardrobe filled with expensive clothes, business attire and slinky dresses and the rest, and of course a cupboard dedicated to her shoes. She had piles of shoes. 

I did a lot of snooping around: I was lucky my job was to make sure everything was in the right place and just as she liked it, since it gave me a great opportunity to find some means of escape. I wasn't looking for a secret tunnel or anything like that, but some information I could use in the future.

No luck. I moved from her bedroom to the bathroom. Here that sterile neatness was abandoned, as you often find in a woman’s living space: there was a miniature cityscape of shower gel, shampoo, conditioner and so on in the shower caddy and a similar, smaller one made up of creams and moisturisers and the like beside the sink. I couldn’t read the labels, but I’ve lived with women before and a cautionary sniff and examination revealed what everything was. The ‘mistress’ was not at all different to a human woman in that regard. In fact, one of the few things I found that was in any way unusual was an electric razor such as a guy would have. But then, she was covered in that soft velvety fur. She probably had to shave herself regularly. 

I felt a rush of excitement at the image that sprung to mind of the mistress with her leg up on the bath, shaving herself neatly between the legs. Based on what I’d already seen, her anatomy was similar to a human's. I mean, she had boobs and hips and everything, so she probably had a neat little pussy as well.

I shook my head. What the hell was I thinking? I returned to my work and did a good job cleaning the bathroom. I didn’t want to arouse any suspicion by doing a half-assed job, and I’ve always been someone that does things properly out of principle. 

The living room and the kitchen were far smaller jobs. She mustn’t use them much. She probably left early every morning like she had today – she had told me not to expect her until late in the evening. She would phone me via the video screen. It had a little pad of various symbols on it, none of which I could read beyond the one she taught me necessary for accepting a call. Although our spoken languages were almost exactly the same by virtue of our universes being close together, the therian writing system was very different, similar to Cyrillic or Greek with neat alphabetical characters.

After a long period of boredom the phone began to chime. I hit the accept key and the mistress' face appeared on the screen. She looked tired. As she told me what she wanted for dinner, she glanced about the room behind me. At the end she nodded, pleased.

“It seems you make a better cleaner than a soldier, human. Perhaps I was not wrong to choose you.”

Her face flashed off the screen. I felt conflicted emotions, then: humiliation at her slight, but also pleasure at the thought she was happy with me. But then I felt sick: thinking like that was a servile emotion. The only reason I was doing my job properly was to give myself time to escape. If she was happy with the results, that was great, but I really didn’t care either way.

I got dinner ready. The vulpines ate raw meat and it was important to cut it properly. I tried hard to do a good job. I guess it’s the same sort of thing that’s expected of a sushi chef when cutting fish for sushi or sashimi. I also got her refreshment ready: liquor and it smelled strong. I sneaked a little and it reminded me strongly of kirsch. Dessert was fruit, berries mostly. 

The vixen came home. She looked even more tired In person than she had on the screen. I took her coat and bag from her and she sat right down at the table and fell upon her food. Vulpines don’t use cutlery, of course. I said she 'fell upon it', but don’t get the wrong idea: she wasn't tearing it to pieces like a feral dog. She might not have been a dainty and graceful eater, but she ate like a human woman who was very, very hungry. 

When she was finished she lay back in her chair, undid one of the buttons at the bottom of her blouse and fixed her golden eyes on me. 

“You must be hungry.”

I nodded. I was.

“You did a good job today. I think this is going to work out.” She had food left over and she pushed the plate towards me. “Want to try some?”

 

I’ve never been averse to trying new things and I’d eaten raw horse flesh in Japan, but I eyed the food with a strange mixture of emotions. I felt a bit like a pet being offered a tid-bit. 

I was hungry, though. I took up some of the meat and ate it. 

The meat tasted very similar to horse. 

“How brave. You've no idea what kind of meat that is, do you?” said the mistress, amused.

I stopped mid chew and my stomach began to rebel. Of course I didn’t know what it was. It could be anything!

But as I went to take it from my mouth, the mistress laughed. “I’m just playing with you. It’s from an animal not unlike your cow, although it has stripes rather than spots. Vulpines do not eat sentient beings. No therian does.”

I swallowed down the meat and the mistress laughed again at the relief on my face. She downed a hit of the liquor and then held out the little glass to me and wiggled it back and forth. 

I refilled her glass for her. She drank quickly and told me about her day as I ate. She held an important managerial position in her company, a large and important one which dealt with transportation and logistics. At the moment they were involved in the war effort so the hours were long and the work exacting. The details of what they did exactly were largely lost on me, but I did learn a lot about office politics. She drank glass after glass of the liquor and toyed with the berries and after a while she told me to bring the bottle as she retired to the couch. She had me switch on the screen and turn it to a landscape channel. 

I attended to her, which meant refilling her glass rapidly. After a while she stretched and lay out lengthwise on the couch. She waved at me and said, “Put it back. I think I’ve had enough.”

When I returned her eyes were closed, but as I approached the couch she opened them. A subtle smile slipped onto her lips as she looked me over. 

“You’ve acquitted yourself well, human,” she murmured. “I think we made the right decision invading your world. You seem pliable and useful, even if you do look like big, bald apes.” She closed her eyes again. “I'm sleepy. Have my bed made ready.”

I did as she said. Beds in her world were flush with the floor, not unlike futons. Since vulpines had evolved from an animal like our fox, it made sense they preferred to sleep close to the ground. 

When I returned to the living room this time her eyes were still closed and she made no move to acknowledge my presence. I stood and waited, watching for any sign of wakefulness. After a while she murmured and drew her knees up to her belly, her lips parting in a sigh. 

I moved closer. She really was a strange and beautiful hybrid of woman and fox. Her tail had curled up between her knees and she held the brush like a teddy bear against her chest as it rose and fell with her gentle breathing. Up close, I noticed her cleavage had the same soft covering of fur as the rest of her body and her nipples were pronounced against the material of her blouse, even through her bra, the straps of which were visible. I noticed too that there was another set of nipples beneath those ones: a second set of breasts, but far smaller. Of course. Foxes have multiple sets of breasts.

The vixen stirred and her ear twitched like a dog’s might. I took a step back. 

A plan began to form in my brain. She enjoyed a drink - a little too much. But the door to the apartment was locked, from the inside as well, and I had no idea of the combination. That would be the next step: finding that combination. 

The mistress looked peaceful sleeping on the couch. I moved closer to see just how deeply she slept. I managed to get right up next to her before my courage gave out and I stopped. Her big fluffy tail was within touching distance. For a moment I thought about touching it and even reached out, but I drew back my hand at the last moment and turned to leave.

I stopped dead when I heard the vixen sigh. 

“Disappointing,” she said. “I thought you might have actually been brazen enough to try and overpower me.”

I turned. Her big, golden eyes were open and considered me with quiet mockery. At my shocked expression her lips split in a wide grin and almost every needle-sharp canine in her mouth became visible. “But then, of course, I would have been obliged to tear out your throat and find a new servant. Perhaps it’s for the best you're timid.”

A half-apology, half-excuse began to tumble out of me in a jumble, but she laughed and drew her brush closer to her chest. “You’re certainly very excitable. I was just joking, perhaps.” She let go of her tail and stretched out her arms and legs with sensuous slowness, making a soft yipping sound of delight deep in her throat. Then she sat up and yawned. “Goodnight, human. I will have my breakfast at five o’clock. Don’t be late.”

I watched her leave. The pronounced wiggle of her hips made her her tail with its white-tipped brush wag back and forth and I stared at it as though hypnotised. She glanced over her shoulder, catching me at it, and with a laugh she closed the door behind her.

\--------------------------

The next few days followed the same pattern, except that she didn't fall asleep on the couch again. She'd have a few drinks after dinner and watch some television before retreating to her room. I continued to be regaled with stories about her work life, and soon it felt as though I was somehow married to her and playing the part of a house-husband. But her mockery lost none of its sting. She never let up on the slights directed towards my species and seemed to take a perverse pleasure in telling me the names of the latest cities that had fallen to their armies. I knew how to operate the TV screen but there was never anything interesting on in the few moments I had free, so I stopped watching it after a while. The news was strangely parochial with only passing mention made of the war, and I learned more about current events from my dinner conversations with the vixen. I tried to watch some of their entertainment programs, but the vulpine sense of humour tended towards the Fescennine and the pratfall and it got boring pretty quickly. How many times can an actor get their tail stuck in a door and still expect to get laughs? The vulpines seemed to have an endless appetite for that sort of thing. 

The other therian channels weren't much better.

But soon the mistress brought me back materials published by the central government designed to teach humans how to read and write their complicated language. Now I had something to do during my meagre allotted free-time, and I was actually happy for it.

One evening the mistress came home early. She gave me only the most perfunctory greeting before she rattled off a litany of requirements and disappeared into the shower. Earlier she'd called and told me there was no need to prepare dinner for her tonight as she'd be going out.

She spent longer than usual in her room. Usually, she'd come straight out in her house-wear and throw herself on the food I’d prepared. Tonight, when the door opened, I was left speechless and starring at the transformation she'd undergone.

Instead of the pyjama-like clothing she usually wore when not in her work clothes, she was wearing a dress. Her hourglass figure, always so obvious in her pencil skirt, was made even more pronounced by the shimmering material which contoured lovingly to her form, hugging her curved hips and thighs. She'd done her hair up in a loose yet intricate style which drew attention to her perky ears. I’d noticed, from watching TV, that a vulpine’s ears were considered an important part of their looks. They were agile in response to a vulpine’s emotions: perking up in interest, flicking about whenever they were distracted, folding back when they were annoyed - and the mistress’ ears were large and shapely and complimented her angular cheekbones and slanted eyes well. 

And her tail! She must have spent a long time blow-drying it. Her brush was even fluffier than usual. 

The mistress caught me staring at her tail and her lips curled into a grin. Then the door chirped and the grin disappeared as she cocked her head at me and started fussing over her appearance. I hurried over to the door and opened it.

Standing in the corridor was another vulpine, the first I’d seen in the flesh since coming to serve the vixen. This one was easily over six and a half feet tall, towering over my own average height, and clearly male: his face was squarer and more aggressive in outline than the vixen's, and his clothing had the unmistakable utility of all masculine clothes, although it was decorated with the gold embroidery which vulpines seem to favour in their formal attire. 

I looked up at him, wondering just how I should invite him in, when he grinned at me and took a step forward. Alarmed, I moved aside but he reached out and grabbed me by the collar and with little effort lifted me clear off the floor. I cried out in both surprise and pain, for my shirt had become an impromptu noose around my neck, cutting off my breath. I kicked my legs like a man being hanged as all the while the vulpine’s eyes looked me up and down.

The vixen appeared. “Release my servant, Raboso,” she said. “You’ll damage him.”

Raboso laughed and immediately set me back on my feet. As I double over gasping I felt his large hand pat me on the back. 

“So they’re just as fragile as they say,” he said. “Little wonder we won as easily as we did.”

“Maybe so,” said the vixen. “But they’re also intelligent.”

Raboso leaned down and brought his face close to mine. I coughed and brought myself back up to full height and stared back at him. My lungs still burned but I wasn’t going to give him any satisfaction from his bullying.

His grin deepened. “Small and smooth, but it looks like there’s a male inside there after all.” He brushed me aside and took hold of the vixen’s hand. “Shall we, Azeri?”

The vixen snorted at him. “You males and your macho posturing.” Then she smiled and ran a long-nailed hand through the short fur of his bare arm. “But I suppose that’s why I love you.”

She glanced at me. There was annoyance but also some other emotion I couldn't divine in her gold eyes. “Be sure to complete your evening duties, human. I do not want you slacking off merely because I’m not at home.”

“I won't, mistress.” I bowed. The vixen closed the door and I retreated back inside.

My heart still racing from Raboso’s manhandling, I swallowed back the bile of my humiliation and threw myself into the myriad of jobs awaiting me.

\-------

My duties completed, I sat up waiting for the vixen to return. Wait. There was no need to call her the vixen any more, was there? She had a name: Azeri. Azeri. 

So I suppose Raboso was her mate. Well, boyfriend maybe. Not her husband, though. I’d learned from the TV that vulpine’ society was more or less similar to our own. They usually had only a single mate, although some important males had larger families: not multiple wives or mistresses it seemed, but other vulpines attached to him, most of which were female but who took the role of nursemaids for the children. I didn’t really understand how it was supposed to work. 

I shook my head. I was wasting time. I was only part way through the textbook of their language. They were arrogant fools to give me the chance I needed. Once I knew how to read their language, finding the code would be easier. If vulpines were anything like humans, it would be written somewhere. Mind you, Azeri seemed too smart to leave such a thing lying around. It was probably on her phone. I’d need to wait until I could take it from her.

I glanced at the clock and tested myself. Vulpine clocks were divided into sixteen periods of around 45 smaller increments roughly equivalent to minutes. That meant...

It was very late. She'd never been this late before.

I was being stupid. She wasn’t coming home. She was staying at Raboso’s place. You didn’t get done up like that to just go to dinner. She was wearing those sexy clothes for a reason.

How did foxes do it? Doggy style? No, wait, foxes aren’t dogs, although they do act a bit dog-like at times. Foxy-style.

Not funny. I pushed the image from my head. The thought of that bully fucking her made me sick. Wait. She was at least as big a bully as he was. They suited each other.

And yet...

I plunged back into the book and did the chapter’s exercises over and over until I got them all right. Then I started the next chapter, even though my eyes were aching from tiredness. 

I must have fallen asleep. The vixen was standing in the living room, staring at me. I hadn’t even heard the door open.

She was frowning. “What are you doing awake?” Her mouth slid into an unhappy grin. “And lying so arrogantly on the couch as though you own the place. Go to your room.”

I grabbed my book and got off the couch, muttering a sleepy apology. I’d only taken a few steps when Azeri said, “Wait.”

I stopped. She brushed past me, tossed her handbag on the floor and collapsed onto the couch. “Get me something to drink.”

I hurried back from the kitchen with a bottle of that gin-like berry liquor and a small glass. She glanced at the glass and shook her head. “No, go get a bigger one. Oh, and one for yourself.”

I blinked at her. “Mistress?” 

She rolled her eyes. “Just do it. I’m sick of arguments tonight. I might be pathetic, but not pathetic enough to drink alone.”

I returned and poured Azeri a large drink and then one for myself at her urging. She grabbed her drink from me and knocked it back. I stood there with my own and took a sip. The liquor burned but was delicious. Azeri glanced up at me and rolled her eyes.

“Sit down, would you? You’re making me nervous.”

I glanced about. Should I sit at the bench? 

Azeri patted the space beside her. “Here. I don’t want to wait for you when I need a refill.”  
I did as I was told. It felt awkward sitting next to her, after the distance she'd kept me at for so long. The situation was similar to that of a week ago and despite the awkwardness, I grew excited. This was my chance. Something had happened to her tonight and she seemed ready to drink her problems away.

I sipped my drink. Azeri watched me and laughed. 

“You drink like a vixen. Put some effort into it. I don’t want to be drunk alone.”

I had no choice but to do as she said. I’m not shy of knocking them back, but I’d planned on pacing myself. I might not get another chance to further my escape for a long time, and I didn’t want to drunkenly screw things up.

The liquor burned going down and a pleasurable warmth spread throughout my chest. Azeri watched me drink and murmured. “Good. That’s better.” Then she turned her eyes from me and looked about the room. “You’ve done an excellent job as always. It’s a nice change coming back to a home that feels like one.”

“Thank you mistress,” I said.

She narrowed her eyes at me. “Don’t make me laugh. I know your servile manner is all for show. You grit your teeth every time you say ’mistress’, did you know that?” She lifted her eyes to the ceiling. “It’s better for you to get used to being a servant. You’ll be happier in the long run.” She sighed. “Listen to me. Talking to you about happiness like you were another vulpine. I really am...” 

She broke off what she was saying and took a drink which went on until she'd drained the glass. After I refilled it, she took a smaller sip then leaned over and placed the glass on the coffee table. She repositioned herself on the couch so that her back was against the armrest and she was facing me. Her gold eyes considered me with a strange intensity. A frown, more sad than angry, settled onto her face. 

“I once said I wanted you to talk more, but you’re still as quiet as a golem at times. I’m sick of males who keep everything hidden. You’re my servant. I order you to tell me something about yourself.”

I stared at her. She seemed upset by something and I felt a dangerous undercurrent in her words. “What would you like to know, mistress?”

She reclaimed her drink. “Do you have a mate back on... what’s your planet called? Earth?”

“Yes, Earth,” I replied. “And no, I don’t have a mate.”

Azeri’s eyes slipped over me. “I can’t really tell if you’re considered good looking,” she said. “But you don’t strike me as ugly. Why don’t you have a mate?”

“Well,” I said, taken aback by the question. “I guess I’ve just never met the right girl. I mean, I’ve gone out with my share of girls, but...” Why the hell was I telling her all this? “Well, things’ve never really gone on long enough to get serious, I guess.”

Azeri laughed, an unpleasant sound. “So you humans are really no different from us. Afraid of commitment, I suppose?”

“No,” I said. “They always ended up breaking up with me.”

The vixen’s smile slid from her face. She took a long drink and arched her eyebrows. “Well, I suppose it’s for the better you don’t have a mate or any kits. I might have felt bad about keeping you here.”

She fell silent. After a while I decided that it was better to keep her talking. The more she talked the more she drank and I didn’t want the opportunity to slip away. “Mistress, is Raboso your mate?”

A look of surprise flashed across her face. For a moment her expression teetered on an edge between anger and unhappiness, but she turned away before I could learn which direction it ended up in.

“No, Raboso is not my mate. He’s a....” She went to take a drink, thought better of it and moved to put the tumbler on the coffee table again but misjudged. There was a harsh clink and some of the liquor spilled over the lip. She ignored it. “God, I was about to say friend.” She placed her face in her hands. “Truth is, I’m his mistress. He has a mate. Kits too. Two of them.”

“But you want him to be your mate.”

The vixen wheeled on me, her eyes flashing. There were tears in them. “You forget yourself.” Then she snorted, rubbed her eyes with the angry back of a hand and reclaimed her glass. “Yes. Pathetic isn’t it?” She drank her drink down and I quickly I refilled her glass before she even offered it to me.

“Trying to get me drunk?” she asked, amused. She drank the glass down and lay back against the armrest with what would have been languid grace if she hadn’t misjudged the distance and been forced to grab the backing of the sofa before she fell back too far. Embarrassment flashed momentarily across her face, but she quickly recovered. “Looks like I already am.” 

She ran a hand down along her stomach, smoothing where her dress had got bunched up. She looked up, met my eyes and chuckled. “Do you humans find the same things attractive, I wonder.” A pause, then: “Do you think I’m pretty, human?”

I blinked. “What sort of a question is that, mistress?”

“Answer it.”

My heart beat faster. There was no point lying. “Yes I do, mistress.”

The edge of her lip curled. “Is that so?” She sat up and drew a hand up along my leg to my thigh. I flinched, but didn’t move away. Was this some kind of joke? 

“Mistress?”

“Shh,” she said. “Don’t move. I’m just checking to see if you’re lying to me.”  
Her hand rose higher until it was cupping my crotch. I was already half-hard and the sudden warmth and firmness of her hand, as well as the look on her face, made me harder. Her eyes were hooded with a mixture of sleepiness and lazy excitement and she smiled at the shock on my face. 

“Mmmm,” she muttered. “You seem to be telling me the truth. But still...” She leaned over, then, and lowered her head over my lap. I froze. Was she actually going to...? Her hands fumbled at the button to my pants and then struggled with the zip. Her head drew lower, and lower, and then she suddenly slumped forward and lay still.

I stared down at her head lying in my lap for a few moments before I heard the snoring.

I bit back laughter. If this was all a joke, she was definitely committed to it. I said her name and patted her head gently in an effort to wake her, but the snoring continued. I sat there, feeling idiotic, wondering just what I should do. If I pushed her head away, she might wake up and I’d lose my chance. 

I gingerly leaned over to get her handbag from where it was sitting beside the couch. The angle was uncomfortable, and to make things worse I was now rock hard. 

I finally grabbed hold of her handbag but not before my movement disturbed Azeri. She murmured and turned her head over. I slowly sat back up so that her head was back in the horizontal and there was less pressure on her neck. Then I placed her handbag on the armrest and lay a hand on her head, which seemed to settle her. Her hair was soft beneath my hand I started stroking it without thinking. She murmured and a long ear twitched.

I let my stroking continue up to her ear, I wasn’t thinking particularly straight since I was pretty drunk too, and I didn’t want to lose the opportunity of feeling what her ear felt like. It was soft and fluffy as I expected and it flattened against her head as I stroked it, just like a dog’s does.

I glanced along the couch. Azeri's dress had ridden up, exposing a large amount of leg. Her legs were as slender as I expected, but toned and widening to some powerful looking thighs. The light fur along them certainly looked soft, as did that tail of hers lying against the back of the sofa, proud and tall and fluffy.

No, I couldn’t let anything distract me. Azeri seemed to have returned to deeper asleep. I opened her handbag and fished out her phone. Luckily, it wasn’t passworded and after a few moments I'd accessed the main menu. It wasn't too different from one of our smartphones, but my knowledge of the vulpine language was quickly put to the test. Luckily, the icons were self-explanatory for the most part and I soon had the note application opened. There was a set of numbers there but with no information on what they applied to. I committed them to memory and then went looking through her messages to see if she'd hidden the code there.

The logs recorded messages from several numbers, but two numbers predominated. One was probably Raboso, the other... well, work, I guessed. I looked through some messages from the other numbers as far back as I could go, but nothing jumped out. 

Well, I had some numbers. That was enough for now. I closed her phone, put it back in her handbag and replaced it on the floor. But what was I going to do with Azeri?   
I cradled her head in my hands and slipped from under her. She snorted and twitched her ears, but slept on. I lowered her head gently to the sofa and got up. I guess I could just leave her like this. She was a bit too heavy to move without waking, and she probably wouldn’t appreciate it if she woke up in my arms. Chances were she'd tear my throat out instinctively, like she'd said before. 

 

She looked uncomfortable, though, so I went and got a pillow from her room and placed it under her head. She murmured and turned over so that she was facing the backing of the sofa and as she did her dress rode up some more. It was all bunched up under her tail now and I could see her underwear. White and lacy, they covered what was a very nicely rounded butt.

I swallowed. She’d probably wake up and find her dress pulled up and think I did it. There was nothing else for it.

I crept up to her and feeling like a pervert I took hold of the soft material bunched up beneath her tail and drew it slowly down over her butt. 

I sat back down and stared at her as her shoulders rose and fell with each breath. She looked utterly peaceful. Clearly she didn’t view me as any kind of threat or else she would never have let herself get into this state. I rankled at the thought, and my sexual frustration added to my anger. I was just a glorified cleaner; no, worse - a pet she thought she could mess around with however she liked. Her teasing was probably some kind of strange dominance thing.

So I wasn't a threat? There was easy access to a knife in the kitchen, the same one I used to cut her breakfast for her. She was so drunk she wouldn’t put up any resistance.

I stood there, wondering if I couldn’t bring myself to kill her. She was a slave-master, after all, and we were at war. She was the enemy. It was my duty to try and escape however I could. 

But just as quickly as the thought occurred to me, I pushed it away. I might be a soldier, but killing an enemy soldier on the battlefield and killing a woman, albeit an enemy, asleep in a home I shared with her were two utterly different things. That demanded colder blood than I had.

And besides, Azeri had treated me well. Uh, as well as you might expect a slave master to treat her slave. She'd teased and humiliated me, true, but was that deserving of death? Besides, without that passcode I was trapped here. There was always the chance that she hadn't recorded it anywhere.

I sat down and poured myself a fresh drink. Any escape would have to wait until tomorrow at the earliest, while she was at work.

She certainly seemed to be sleeping soundly. She really must have wanted to forget everything that happened tonight. From what she’d hinted at, she’d had an unpleasant evening with Raboso.

The thought of that bully striking out with Azeri pleased me. I sat there, pleasantly drunk, and finished my drink. Then I washed everything up and went to bed. I lay there a long time, as I usually do when drunk, my thoughts keeping me awake. Her fur had felt so soft under my fingers, and those ears... those furry ears... only her tail looked fluffier than them.

Even with my hands underneath my pillow I could detect her scent on them. A spicy scent, musky and rich like cinnamon. A hot, sexy scent. The way she’d run her hand up my leg, brought her pretty face down between my legs and been about to...

\---------

I woke with an aching erection. The night had been filled with erotic dreams, but the alcohol I’d drunk left the memory of them indistinct in the haze of my cotton-wool mouth and throbbing head. 

I glanced at the clock. Still early. She mustn’t be awake yet. I got up and washed my face in my little sink. The cold water felt good on my feverish forehead and I drank as much as I could keep down. It was the only cure for a hangover that had ever worked for me. 

But I also needed coffee. I ducked upstairs and glanced at the sofa. Azeri had shifted in her sleep and was lying on her back, one leg hanging off the sofa and the other slung over the back of it. The position looked utterly uncomfortable, but she was still fast asleep. 

I went and made coffee. As the machine percolated I heard a murmur from the living room.

My name.

It was the first time I’d heard it since the employment centre. She’d always called me ‘human’ since then. I’d actually started to forget I had a name. 

I stood there in shock for a moment, then I went into the living room. Azeri was awake and lying propped up on an elbow. 

She blinked at me blearily. “What are you doing?” Her voice was dry and cracked.

“I’m making coffee, mistress,” I said. “I’ll bring you some when I’m...”

“I’m going to be sick,” she said, and promptly was.

I managed to get her to the bathroom before the second wave hit. I had her over the toilet and held back her hair as she vomited again, and then again. Usually I get sick to the stomach when I hear and smell someone else vomiting, but this time I just felt sorry for her. Her body was wracked with heaving until there was nothing left in her stomach.

I brought some tissues and helped her wipe her mouth, but she snatched them from me.

“I’m not a kit,” she whispered hoarsely. “Let me be!”

I went back and cleaned up the living room. After a while I heard the shower running. It ran for a long time. I started to worry she’d fallen unconscious and so I knocked on the door.

She said something, but her voice was so low and weak I couldn’t make it out. I knocked and called out to her again.

“Go away!” she said, much louder this time and dark with anger.

I messed around until she finally came out of the bathroom wrapped in a towel. She’d done a poor job of drying herself and looked bedraggled, her wet hair lank against her skin and her ears plastered back against her head. Her face had lost its earlier greenness, but was still pale. She stumbled past me without acknowledging me and slid onto the sofa.

“Coffee,” she muttered. I got her some. 

She winced as she smelled the cup, but then she drank the coffee down and asked for another.

After another cup she had me bring her some pills from the bathroom, which she ate a handful of, and then, after snatching up her handbag, she retreated to her bedroom and slid into bed. 

I left her there to sleep it off. After an hour I went to check on her. She was asleep. I checked on her every hour after that, with the same result. Around midday I decided I should wake her. I shook her shoulder under the tightly tucked-in sheet.

Azeri opened her eyes and grinned at me, but the grin rapidly slid from her face as her eyes focussed on me.

“Oh,” she said. “It’s you.” She slid up onto her elbows. “What time is it?”

I told her.

“Damn.”

“Are you hungry, mistress?” I asked.

“Mmm,” she said. She grabbed her phone from under the pillow and checked it. A grim look settled onto her face and for a second I thought I must have left some sign of my earlier snooping on her phone, but I quickly learned the reason for her frown wasn’t me.

“That asshole,” she muttered. She looked up at me as though noticing me for the first time. “I’ll have meat. Anything, as long as it’s cold.”

I excused myself and went to get her lunch.

I nursed her for the whole day, obeying her curt commands, but never fast enough for her. She was behaving like she had when she’d first enslaved me, keeping me at a distance and bullying me, but without her earlier mocking humour. That brief moment of intimacy last night seemed far away now.

Well, she had been incredibly drunk. 

And yet... she'd called my name this morning. Her voice had been plaintive, fragile. Maybe, half awake and sick, she’d just forgotten to call me ‘human’. 

I weathered the storm. She spent a lot of the day sleeping. It was the first day of their weekend, so on their version of Monday I’d try out the numbers I’d memorised.

I played them over in my head, hoping I remembered them correctly. Well, we’d see.

The next day when I went to wake her, Azeri was already awake. I opened the blinds as I usually do and she watched me in silence, blinking her big golden eyes as the light spilled in. She looked as though she’d recovered.

“Do you feel better mistress?”

No reply. Just those large eyes fixed on me. I grew uncomfortable and left the room. She certainly seemed a lot better, even if she was acting odd. Her complexion, for one thing. Her face was a healthy pink colour, so different from yesterday’s paleness. And there was something else. Yes, her scent. It was particularly strong this morning. 

I got her breakfast ready. She came in dressed in a short-hemmed sun dress. She was also made-up, although for once her hair was held back by a simple headband rather than done up in the complex style she favoured when going out. She sat down at the table and I brought her her food.

She ate voraciously and asked for seconds. I was a bit slow bringing them and her eyes flashed at me dangerously.

So much for her being in a better mood. At least she wasn’t shouting at me.

When she was finished she got up and fixed me with a strange look. “I'll be away all day, so there is no need for you to make me lunch.”

“Yes, mistress,” I said. 

A gentle, mocking smile flickered onto her lips. “Aren’t you wondering where I'm going?”

I shook my head. “It’s not my place to ask, mistress.”

The truth was, I was interested. She seldom dressed up to go out on weekends. In fact, she usually went to the office to catch up on paperwork.

Her curled lips settled into a grin. “You know, human, you have a droll sense of humour. I very much enjoy it.” She stood up and twirled about in her dress. “So how do I look?

I stared at her. She’d never acted this way in front of me before. Also, she looked beautiful in that dress with her long legs on ample display. Her hair was loose and twirled with her as well. 

“You look beautiful, mistress.”

The words came out more heartfelt than I'd intended. Azeri looked at me and after a few moments she smiled.

“You are too kind, human.”

Then, humming, she left.

I waited an hour. With the morning off from my usual weekend duties, I passed the time sitting on the couch and learning more of the language. When I decided she wasn't coming back, I went to the door. It was a simple keypad, and I'd watched Azeri use it many times before, although at a distance. The menus were very straightforward.

I'd counted the number of keypresses Azeri had made, and now I knew the folder options it was a simple matter of subtraction to work out how long the code was. It had to be six numbers long. 

I mentally discarded the numbers that were either too long or too short, which left me with three sets of numbers. I input each of the numbers after the other. 

None proved to be the code. Or maybe I'd just misremembered them. 

I slumped back on the couch, feeling despair settle over me. I really was trapped. Although this was a gilded cage, it was a cage nonetheless. My entire life revolved around Azeri, my entire existence now directed towards her pleasure. The thought sickened me.

I went back up to the codepad and started pushing numbers at random in desperation. Then I fell to my knees and lay there, my palms against the cool lacquered wood of the floor. 

So this was how I was going to spend the rest of my life.


	2. Lover

Azeri returned little under an hour later. The front door flew open and she stalked into the apartment. I jumped to my feet from where I'd been sitting on the couch studying.

“You have your own desk,” she snapped. “Go there now.”

I stood up. In my hurry to leave Azeri and I almost collided with each other. I glanced up at her. Her eyes were red. In fact, all of her face was red. 

“Mistress, are you alright?”

Her eyes flashed. “Of course I’m not, you fool.” She brushed me aside and threw the bathroom door open. She began stripping her dress off with the door still open and, flustered, I retreated downstairs to my room.

What the hell was going on?

Raboso again. 

I was lying on my bed when I heard Azeri call for me. I hurried back upstairs. She was in the living room sitting on the couch in a towel, her face in her hands. Her hair was still wet, lying flat against her skull, and her usually haughty ears were droopy, laden with moisture. When I approached her she looked up at me.

“Please sit down,” she said, patting the couch beside her. “I… I need someone to talk to right now. And there's no one else around.”

Despite the offhand cruelty of her words, her voice was tired, the expression on her face defeated, so I made no protest and did as she said. 

“You said this morning I looked beautiful, human,” she said after a while. “Were you telling the truth?”

“I was, mistress,” I said. 

She examined my face, then nodded. “This morning your words sounded genuine as well. I'm glad.” 

The plaintive tone of her voice pricked my heart. “Mistress, what happened? Why are you so upset?”

She shook her head. “I called you a fool, human. It’s me who’s the fool.” She sighed. “We’d planned to meet today. He said he'd organised everything but after I’d been waiting for an hour I got a message from him. His mate had planned something without telling him. As a surprise. Bitch.” She spat the word. “Nothing accidental. She knows he’s straying. I know she knows and puts up with it. He is handsome, after all, and powerful and...” She frowned. “He made me feel loved, human. That bastard. And he doesn’t give a damn about me.”

She lay back, rested a hand against her forehead. “Do you know why we argued two nights ago? He refused to sleep with me.”

I murmured disbelief. Azeri glanced at me but didn’t say anything. She continued. “Too close to estrous, he said. He’s petrified of getting me pregnant, you know. I realised last night he has no intention of marrying me. But when he invited me out today I thought...” Her voice broke. “Well, who knows what idiotic thing I thought.”

“Estrous, mistress?”

She looked at me. A smile crept onto her face, incongruous with her moist, downcast eyes. “Oh that’s right. You don’t have estrous do you? It's our mating season.” She sniffed. “You humans mate all year round, don’t you?”

“Well,” I said. “Some people do.”

She laughed. “You know, human, I like your droll humour. Your lack of estrous must be why there is so very many of you. I feel sorry for your poor females. Of course vulpines are physically capable of having sex any time, but it never seems the same as it does in estrous. Everything grows ready for lovemaking.” She leaned over and brought her face close to mine. “My eyes, for example. Do you see my pupils, how big they are?”

I swallowed and nodded. There was no denying her eyes were even larger and darker than usual. The pupils were almost fully dilated and glistened like dark water. I'd thought they looked that way from crying, but now I saw them for what they were: dangerous, but also playful. 

Azeri dropped her gaze and looked up at me through her thick lashes. Her smile had taken on its usual mocking air. “And no doubt you can smell my scent. It's grown stronger over the past few days.”

I had noticed. The whole apartment smelled of her, especially the doors and the couch. I'd seen her brushing her tail against the door posts whenever she passed by them, but from the absent-minded way she did it I'd thought it was just a strange habit. I'd even started noticing her scent on my clothes. It was strong, but not unpleasant at all: rich and sexy, not unlike a human woman's intimate scent when she's wet.

Azeri detected something in my expression and she laughed. “So you like my scent, do you? Does it make you feel funny, human?”

Her hand slipped onto my knee. I watched as she parted her fingers, ran her tiny claw-tips up onto my thigh, half-scratch, half-caress. Near my crotch she stopped, let her fingers tap up and down. I looked up at her and she smiled back, that strange, teasing, sultry smile I'd seen a few nights earlier. 

“I hear you at night, you know,” she said. “Taking your pleasure from yourself.”

I blinked, fought back the ridiculous heat that came to my face. “Mistress?”

The smile became a smirk. “Oh, don't worry. I'm not angry. Well, perhaps a little. You belong to me, after all. You should really ask my permission before you take matters into your own hands. It really is a shame...”

Her hand slipped between my legs. I was already rock hard, of course. The close proximity of her, that sexy scent boiling off her in waves, those dark, inviting eyes, her slick hair and the swelling of her ample breasts underneath the towel. It had slipped down further and the depth of her cleavage was apparent, that gorgeous uneven cleavage when a woman's breasts are free and unconfined by a bra. I only had to lift my hand and…

I gasped. Azeri had squeezed me, hard, through my pants. She murmured, pleased. 

“Did I do that? You're surprisingly large for such a small creature. Are all humans the same?”

I babbled something about being a little over average, but Azeri clearly didn't care about any answer I might give. She began stroking me, her fingers tracing my length under the material.

“Yes,” she murmured. “A shame to waste something as nice as this on such a selfish pursuit.” She squeezed me again, then removed her hand with a chuckle. “I should stop, shouldn't I? Teasing you, I mean. This is just a silly game after all. I'm just having fun with you. I really am a shameless vixen.”

She sat back, slipped her hands behind her head. The movement loosened her towel and it slipped further down. Shit. Her breasts really were impressive. The tiniest suggestion of pink peeped over the edge of the towel. Her nipples. They were large and hard and had stopped the towel slipping any lower. 

Azeri looked at me. I knew that look. I'd seen it on a girl's face before. It was a challenge, an invitation. On her foxy face, though, it seemed even more arrogant. Was she still teasing me? She'd said this was all just a game.

I hesitated. Azeri's lips parted and the edge of her eyes narrowed, almost imperceptibly. Disappointment.

Maybe this was all a trick to goad me into touching her so she finally had an excuse to bite me, but even so my dick wouldn't forgive me if I didn't take the chance. I reached forward and slipped a hand down the front of her towel, encountering the softness of a breast, covered with an even softer velvety fur, her nipple a hard point. 

Azeri shivered and made a strange, sharp sound in her throat like a yip. She fixed me with her gaze. Her eyes had lost their arrogance, and were gentler, questioning. Her frown was gone, replaced by an almost shy smile, but still with that hint of foxy mockery in it. 

I slid my hander lower, cupping her breast. My fingertips danced across the softness where the curve of her breast became her side.

She gasped, then grinned at me. “Do you like them, human? They're a little larger than normal. The hormones, from estrous. Everything becomes swollen.”

She took hold of my other hand and brought it to her chest. The movement made the towel slip lower and her breasts popped free at last. I cupped their weight, my thumbs slipping over her large nipples to rub them. Azeri gasped again.

“You're so gentle,” she muttered. “Raboso always used to squeeze them, like he was trying to milk me. It hurt. But your hands… they feel so...” She closed her eyes and lay back. “I wonder if your tongue feels as good as your hands.”

I didn't need to be told twice. I lowered my head to her chest, replaced first one thumb and then the other with my tongue. Her nipples were hot and hard against my lips and I drew them into my mouth, sucking them in turn.

Azeri sighed and ran her fingers through my hair as I licked and sucked at her breasts. The fine layer of fur tickled me as I drew my lips around the curve of one breast while my thumbs took up their previous task, flicking at her now moist nipples. 

So this is what it felt like to kiss a vulpine's pelt. I'd wondered if her hairiness would repulse me, but it just excited me more. Her fur was soft and thick with her scent. My head reeled at the sexy richness of her musk and I felt myself getting impossibly harder.

I wanted to see more of Azeri, but I also wanted to tease myself. I slipped off the couch and knelt on the floor before her, leaning across her knees to pull her towel open. My eyes closed, I stretched up to give her nipples one last lick before I turned my attention to her lower half. A woman's belly has always held an incredible attraction to me, and my blind hands ran across hers now. Her belly was toned but with that silky elegant curve that women have just above their sex. 

I kissed the sweet undercurve of one breast and drew my lips lower. But instead of smooth skin I encountered a second delicate swelling, and my lips soon brushed against another hard point. 

Of course. I'd forgotten about Azeri's second set of breasts. Since she was in estrous, they were now more than just nipples and had swollen into delicate little mounds, a perfect miniature of the ones above. 

“Why did you stop?” Azeri muttered, looking down at me. “Is something… oh!”

I slipped one lower nipple into my mouth and leisurely tongued it. The strangeness of her vulpine body was exciting me far more than I expected. 

A low growling started in her throat. She was obviously enjoying what I was doing to her. Raboso, even when he was interested in having sex with her, seemed not to be a guy to waste a lot of time on foreplay. 

Her towel was still bunched up around her waist and I struggled to pull it off. Azeri helped by lifting her butt and I threw the towel aside. I opened my eyes then, no longer able to resist. She lay fully naked before me now, the full length of her slender red-and white body on display. She really was well-built, her figure an almost perfect hourglass with her wide hips and chest. 

But the full extent of her feminine mystery remained hidden by her chastely closed knees. Not for long. I kissed her heaving belly and placed a hand on each knee, gently drawing them apart. 

So a vulpine did look much the same as a human woman. She was puffy and swollen and her narrow slit was slick with her excitement. The scent of her made me dizzy and I dove forward, eager to discover whether she tasted as good as she smelled. 

Azeri's foot, placed against my stomach, stopped me. 

I looked up at her. “Mistress?” 

Azeri was staring down at me, her face flushed, her eyes impossibly even larger and darker than before. Her lips curled back revealing her white canines and a low growl rose in her throat. She stretched her leg straight and pushed me back onto my butt, then hopped back onto her haunches on the couch and stared at me. Her mouth curved into a half-snarl, half-smile, the growl finally resolving itself into an excited yip. 

What the hell had gotten into her? I got to my feet slowly, not wanting to startle her, but when I moved she scrambled to the edge of the crouch and started snarling at me again. 

“Mistress?” I reached out for her and she darted forward, snapping with her teeth. I pulled my hand away, shocked, but when there was no second attack and she instead shifted back and forth, grinning at me and flicking her tail, I realised she was just playing with me. 

Azeri fell back on her hands and haunches and stared at me. I took a step toward her and she growled. I stepped forward again and this time she leaped backwards off the side of the couch, landing on her feet. 

I made a lunge for her and she skipped away, naked, her brushy tail high and arrogant above the beautiful curve of her dimpled butt. She skipped behind the kitchen table and waited there, her tail flicking back and forth as she watched me, her eyes wide, a mocking smile on her lips.

I sprinted across the room to the other side of the table but she skittered away and the game quickly devolved into a stalemate where each of us dummied the other, lunging left and right as we tried to second-guess each other. My heart was soon racing with the exertion, but I couldn't stop myself from smiling at the absurdity of the whole thing. So this was vulpine foreplay! Azeri had the benefit of experience and being naked, she was a lot more agile than I was, constrained by my ridiculously tight uniform and a pants-straining erection. 

As we danced around the table I stripped off my jacket and threw it aside. The distraction gave Azeri the opportunity she'd been waiting for and she made a break for it, sprinting across the living room to the corridor. I ran after her, pulling at the buttons of my shirt and baring my chest. 

Invigorated by the coolness of the air, I cleared the corner and stopped. She'd disappeared, but there was nowhere for her to run. Azeri had to be in one of the rooms, either the bathroom or her own or perhaps even the spare room at the far end. She was quick enough to have made it that far, after all. 

I advanced, every sense heightened, waiting for a sneak attack. I knew she was waiting for me to lose focus for a split second and then she'd be bounding past me back to the living room and that infuriating game of ring-of-roses around the kitchen table. I stripped my shirt off and threw it behind me. My fingers reached down to my belt. I should take off my pants as well, shouldn't I? But then the ridiculous image of myself running with my erection slapping this way and that made me think twice, as did the thought of leaving myself open for a sneak attack of a different kind. I didn't know the rules of this game, but I suspected their weren't any.

I heard a noise ahead of me. Was that the whisper of a bushy tail against a wall? I advanced slowly, listening for it again. Her room was the first on the left, and with the door ajar I suspected that she was waiting just on the other side. I pushed the door open, expecting to find the doorway filled with a nude vixen ready to push her way past, but I was disappointed.

I swung around, half-expecting her to have waited for me to choose the wrong door and capitalise on it. But she was a wily vixen and the corridor remained still and utterly silent. 

Drip. The sound of the tap dripping. I edged the door of the bathroom open with a toe and blocked the doorway, but she wasn't there either. Again, the corridor remained still.

My heart was racing faster now. Well, foxes are in their element in situations like this, aren't they? Her bare feet, with their soft pads, made very little sound and her long legs were not just for show. 

What was the end phase of this game, I wondered? Would she escape and I'd have to admit defeat, collapsing exhausted on the sofa to receive playful abuse at my expense? Or would I catch her only to be pushed away and find that all of this was just a vixen's trick, intended to distract her from her personal problems by teasing her servant to the point of agony?

My heart pounded. Whatever intentions she had, I refused to let her win. My masculine pride wouldn't allow it. She could bite and scratch if she wished, but I would take some pleasure from her, like it or not. 

With hot-blooded thoughts of ravishment pouring through me, I reached the final door, the one to the spare room. I waited outside it, silent, for four heartbeats, and then I threw the door open. 

Azeri was on top of me at once. She had no intention of brushing past me but intended to go through me. I grabbed hold of her wrists and held on to her as she cried out and yipped and struggled, tossing her hair and sweeping her tail back and forth as she pushed me over onto my back.

I swung around as I fell and pulled her beneath me. Now on top of her, I desperately tried to keep her wrists held against the floor, but her fighting grew stronger. She darted her face at mine, yipping and nipping at my nose, but never quite connecting, as I endeavoured to pin her kicking legs under my own. 

I thought for sure this wrestling would quickly devolve into an actual fight, but just as quickly as it had begun I felt the strain go out of her limbs. Her struggles became weaker and at last she went limp. I suspected a trick, but I let go, anyway. I was thankful for the breather - my lungs were aching and I felt on the verge of exhaustion. 

Azeri, panting, slid forward onto her stomach and raised her bare haunches into the air. I thought she was stretching, getting ready to spring away, but when a heartbeat passed with no further movement, I knew immediately what was going on. 

Her tail flicked back and forth, scattering her thick scent into the air. The air was ripe with it. Beneath her tail, under the charming little pucker of her butt, her sex was wet like a cut peach. 

She gazed back over her shoulder at me. Her eyes were hooded, her ears splayed back, her mouth hanging lewdly open.

“Please,” she whispered. “Please.”

I needed no further invitation. I stumbled forward, one hand wrestling my belt and pants open as the other grabbed hold of her hip. Despite the awkwardness of doing it one-handed, my eagerness won out and in record time my dick popped free of my underwear and I threw myself on top of her. Azeri squealed in delight and I wasted no time in driving myself into her. Her sex was awash and offered almost no resistance to me and I slid right up to the hilt in her gooey, boiling heat, eliciting a deep, guttural moan from her. Grimacing at the incredible jolt of pleasure that sparked right up along my spine, I steadied my body and agonisingly drew myself out, only to thrust myself straight back into her. 

Azeri cried out and if I hadn't been biting my lip from the pleasure I would have as well. There was no way I was going to let her know how good she was making me feel. It was a stupid game, but by now I was running on instinct. I held onto her slender hips and with her bushy tail stroking my stomach and chest I began to rut her with total abandon, all thoughts of foreplay forgotten. 

The roundness of her butt flattened nicely against my pelvis as, panting, she pushed her hips back to meet my thrusts. She began to shiver and hot juices boiled around my shaft. I'd never had such an instantaneous reaction from a female before and my blood flowed even hotter. I was going to show this vixen how humans did it, how it felt to be rutted by a male who knew how to pleasure a female! 

Somehow I kept myself from coming, although the slick heat of her tightness was doing its best to drive me over the edge. I was delirious with pleasure, my senses wholly dominated by her. Her brush, thrusting up against my body as I penetrated her, plastering more of that flowery, sexy scent all over me. I lowered my face into its fluffy softness and breathed deeply of her fragrance as I continued to plough into her. Azeri did her best to keep up, but soon she let me take over, grunting and panting as I pushed her face into the floor with every thrust. 

Then her whole body trembled and I felt a wave of heat around my shaft. She was coming already and the thought drove me over the edge. I let myself go and with my hips a blur I stabbed myself over and over into her until my abdomen was soaking with her juices. She arched her back, growing even tighter around me until, with a final, desperate cry she came. 

With her body shuddering beneath me and around my shaft, my balls grew tight and moments later I came inside her, basting her insides with weeks of pent-up sperm and angry frustration. The intensity of my climax made my vision go white, and it felt as though the back of my head blew out. Sweat poured off me as I collapsed on top of her, squishing her tail between us, my softening dick still inside her. 

We lay there together, the two of us watching each other's panting, and with the little energy I had left I drew my lips and tongue over the back of her neck where her hair, thrown forward over her head, had bared it. Her coat was slick with perspiration and she smelled like sex. 

Finally, with a twitch of my hips I let myself pop out of her and she gave a little gasp, Then, languid with happy exhaustion, she rolled over. I helped her, slipping off her so that we were lying face to face.

Azeri gazed at me, strands of hair plastered to her face with sweat, her skin flushed. Her eyes no longer held that heavy, erotic need in them, the pupils now only a little larger than normal. She smiled at me shyly, then she closed her eyes and nuzzled her face into the crook of my neck.

She muttered something I couldn't hear, but I knew what she wanted. I slid my arms around her and drew her closer. Her little whiskers tickled my face, but it was a small price to pay to have such a gorgeous creature in my arms. Soon I felt her breathing deepen, the rise and fall of her breasts pressed against my own chest growing slow and regular, and I knew she'd fallen asleep.

As I lay there with her, I fought off the same post-coital sleep threatening me and thought things through. What did this mean for us, exactly? Maybe it was stupid to read too much into it. I was still her servant. Haven't servants always in history been at the beck and call of their masters' sexual demands? Probably when she woke up she'd act as though nothing had happened. The old, bullying, teasing Azeri would return and nothing would change. This was the only chance I was going to get. If I was going to do something, I should do it now. Maybe I could tear up some of my sheets and tie her arms and legs with them. She was dead to the world and I was pretty sure I could do it without waking her up. 

What then? I'd have her there, immobile, and threaten her with what exactly, if she didn't give me the passcode to the front door? The kitchen was full of knives. I didn't really have to go through with it, just indulge in a bit of acting, maybe press the point of a knife against her skin...

My mind rebelled at the thought of threatening her. even if it was just an act. Actually considering such things when she was wrapped about me, her naked body pressed against my own, her gentle breathing moistening my neck, seemed worse than contemptible. 

I felt a jolt of despair. What the hell was I going to do, then? If I didn't have the guts to go through with anything violent, what were my options?

I had to get a grip. She was lying in my arms, a smile on her face, her body warm and sweat-slick and happy. She was full to overflowing of my sperm. That had to count for something, right? Maybe, maybe seducing her was the way to go about it. She was having trouble with her boyfriend. Maybe I could slip very easily into that role.

My heart skipped. What if this wasn't just a one-off thing? Could I really…?

Azeri murmured and shifted, making herself more comfortable. Her claws slid along my side, playful. She was still asleep, but perhaps she was dreaming.

As I lay there, listening to her breathing, a plan slowly began to reveal itself... 

\-------------------------

I woke without even realising I'd fallen asleep. I guess chasing Azeri and the spirited sex that had followed had really taken it out of me. My old drill-sergeant would've been ashamed by my lack of stamina. 

I felt for Azeri beside me. She was gone, of course. The sound of her moving about had woken me up. I rose and padded out into the corridor. 

The door to the bathroom slipped open. Azeri was standing before the mirror, brushing her teeth. She arched an eyebrow at me, then spat in the sink and rinsed her mouth. 

“You're only half-dressed,” she murmured, dabbing at her lips with a hand towel. “Go put a shirt on.”

So the old Azeri was back. I turned to go but she leaned out and grabbed me, her eyes glittering with amusement.

“You know, human, you're terrible at reading people. Can't you tell a joke when you hear one?” 

She pulled me closer and leaned forward, closing her eyes. I hesitated, but only for a moment. I pressed my lips against hers. They were softer than I expected, and the tip of the tongue that slipped out was hot and cool with the menthol of her toothpaste. I met it with my own and for a brief moment we kissed deeply, her short whiskers tickling my cheeks as we did. 

When she broke away I realised that this was the first time we'd done it. Azeri was obviously far better at reading me than I was her, for she laughed.

“I know,” she said. “Things got out of control, didn't they? But you really did acquit yourself well.” Her smile became shy. “Do… do humans chase each other before having sex?”

I shook my head and she laughed. “Oh, I thought so. The strange look you gave me! But I'm glad to know that when it comes to sex itself humans do it much the same as we do.” Again that shy smile. “So much of you came out. It really was a chore cleaning myself up.” Her smile dropped away suddenly and she ducked back into the bathroom and fumbled at the cupboard behind the mirror. She took out a little jar and shook a couple of gel caps into her hand.

“Are you sick, mistress?” 

Azeri laughed. “Please don't call me mistress while we're like this. It just seems so stupid. Call me Azeri. No.” She popped the capsules in her mouth and swallowed them with a quick cupped handful of water. “I'm not sick. These pills are for… well, they're contraceptives.”

Contraceptives? I stared at her. I hadn't even thought of the ramifications of coming inside of her. Could humans and vulpines even…?

Azeri noted my confusion and laughed again. She really was in a good mood. “I don't think we're anywhere genetically similar enough to breed. I have to take the pills anyway. They help regulate my hormones during estrous. Without them I'd get really, really wild.”

Really, really wild? After all the growling and yipping and pouncing, I wondered just how much wilder she could get.

“Now go put a shirt on,” said Azeri, ending the conversation. “I can't have a half-naked servant wandering my apartment. People will start to talk. Besides...” Her smile grew lewd and her eyes dropped below my waist. “You're taking your chances dressing like that around me while I'm in estrous. I could pounce on you at any moment.”

She made a fake lunge at me and fell over laughing when I flinched away from her, and I couldn't help but laugh with her as well. 

\------------------------------

I smelled of her, of the sex we'd indulged in, and I found it difficult to sleep. That thick, sexy smell permeated everything, even the walls of the apartment itself it seemed. But maybe I was imagining things. Maybe her scent was permeating me and I took it wherever I went.

Whatever it was, my hard-on refused to go down. I'd decided that there was only one way I was going to get to sleep, and that was by abusing the damn thing until it gave up. 

There was no need to waste time deciding on what to think about while I did it. The way Azeri had lain there, her face agonised and desperate as she wiggled her butt and pleaded with me to mount her. Yeah, that was it right there. 

I'd never had any complaints about my love-making, but somehow with Azeri I'd felt like a real alpha-male. She'd turned orgasmic as soon as I'd penetrated her and every movement she'd made had been fixed on making me spill my semen as soon as possible into that hungry little womb of hers.

I didn't need much more. I was on the brink as it was. I wasn't in the mood for any edging and I was reaching the point of no return when the door to my room flew open and light poured in.

Shit. It was like when I was a teenager with my mom walking in on me. My hand dropped my dick like it was a poisonous snake and I froze, trying to act as much like a comatose human who wasn't masturbating as possible. 

I heard her step into the room. She wasn't trying to be quiet. I knew that when she wanted to, Azeri could walk almost silently, just like a real fox. She came up to the bed and I squeezed my eyes shut tighter.

I felt like an idiot, but now that I'd started on this whole charade, I had to see it through to the…

The covers were torn off and I opened my eyes. My dick, still hard as a rock, was sticking straight up. I hadn't had time to put it back in my pants. I looked at it and then up at Azeri, who met my eyes with her arms folded. She was frowning.

“Didn't I tell you I can hear it when you're doing this … this bad habit of yours?”

I began to babble something, but Azeri lifted a hand and shook her head. 

“No, no need for any excuses.” Her eyes slipped down between my legs. “Luckily, it seems I got here before you could waste it.”

“Mistress?”

Her face lost its frown, replaced by that shy smile of hers I'd seen earlier for the first time. I liked that smile very much. It was a little girl's 'wanting to be spoiled' smile, the smile of someone who's eager but doesn't want to give the game away.

“I didn't satisfy you earlier?” she murmured.

I opened my mouth, flapped it like a fish a few times before I got control of myself. No need to lie in this situation.

“No, I was totally satisfied,” I said. “I came so hard I thought I lost my mind. But I guess...” I smiled with embarrassment. “I suppose everything just smells like you, mis…. Azeri. I guess your estrous must be contagious.”

Her eyes narrowed, unsure. “You were thinking about me?”

I nodded. 

The fragility on her face was pushed away by a grin of delight and with a happy yelp she threw herself onto the bed. I hoped she didn't want to place the chasing game again, but luckily she seemed focussed on only one thing. Her hands slipped between my legs to play with my erection while her mouth found mine.

I slipped my hand down and lifted up the hem of her night dress. She was wearing panties underneath, and as I brought my fingers against the material I discovered the were already soaked. 

“Uh,” she gasped against my lips as I massaged her through her underwear. “You've made me ruin this pair, too.”

I pushed the material aside and slid two fingers right into her, making her gasp against my mouth. Her breath was hot, but hotter still was that gooey paradise inside of her.

She began to squirm and tried to roll over onto all fours. Fearing a repeat of what happened last time, I pressed myself down heavier upon her and whispered to her as I kissed and licked at the soft fur of her neck below her ear.

“Let's do it human style this time.”

“Hu-human style?” she whispered. 

My lips reached her ears and I nibbled along the edges of them. I'd suspected they were sensitive, and the sharp pants and gasps Azeri was now producing proved me right.

“Please,” she gasped. “Please. They're… I'm too sensitive there! Please.”

“You're not going to run away this time?”

“No-o,” she murmured. Her voice was submissive and the difference from her ordinary arrogance excited me further. 

“So you'll be a good vixen?”

“Y-yes,” she whispered.

“Then I'll show you how humans make love.”

I decided to give her the whole 'boyfriend experience'. I guess I had something to prove, that I could be in control of our lovemaking. Sure, she'd present herself submissively to me earlier, but hadn't that just been control in a different form? There was no way I could've resisted her with her butt high up in the air like that, and she'd known it. No, I was going to tease her, spoil her until she begged me to make love to her. 

I wondered then if any of the other servants were tending to their masters the same way I was. The thought was exciting, but I pushed it from my mind. I didn't need any help to get worked up. Azeri's gasps and the sticky heat around my fingers already had me hard as diamond. 

I decided to be merciful on her and stopped nibbling those pretty ears. Instead, I spent a long time kissing her, delighting in her large tongue and the sweetness of her mouth, while I continued to gently finger her. My hands were awash by the time I decided to treat her to a good licking. Or was I treating myself? Last time I'd been all geared up to discover whether she tasted as good as she smelled.

I kissed and mouthed her boobs through the silken material of the nightdress, but didn't spend as much time with them as before. Instead I quickly drew down to her stomach. I lifted the hem of her nightdress so that it was bunched up around her middle, allowing me free reign to lick and smother my face in the delightful soft curve of her belly. The fine fur there made it just as much fun as a human girl's.

But soon the scent of her excitement took hold of me. I licked down along her pelvic bone and then gave a teasing, tentative lick of first one, then the other of her pouting lips. She really was puffy down there, and so incredibly wet that my initial kisses left my lips sticky with her excitement. She tasted delicious: savoury and rich and clear, with a vulpine spiciness that made me dizzy. 

I was teasing myself more than her, so when her hands found my hair and pushed my face between her legs, I put up no fight whatsoever. My senses overwhelmed with the smell of her, I slipped my tongue across the length of her gooey slit. I received the full effect this time and my dick jerked, getting even harder than before.

Shit, I'd never come from eating a girl out before, but there was always a first time. I grabbed her knees and pushed her legs back, opening her fully to my hungry gaze and tongue. I paced myself, making sure that Azeri's little bump got all the attention it needed. She squirmed and moaned and gave those cute little excite yips from deep in her throat as I ate her out. 

Soon it became too much for her and she pushed my head away. 

“No-one's ever done it to me like that before,” she gasped.

I'd heard that lots of times before, but I believed Azeri when she said it. Vulpine's seemed pretty conservative when it came to sex, and I couldn't imagine Raboso doing that for her.

“That's just for starters,” I murmured. I straddled her, covering her with my body. Azeri seemed unsure about what we were doing, but she slipped her arms around my back and drew me close to kiss her.

Her mouth was hot and wet and open to me as I chased her tongue with my own. She moaned and squeezed me tighter while I ran my fingers through that gorgeous red hair of hers, letting my fingers squirm up to caress her pointed ears. They were her weak spot and like an enemy I capitalised on her weakness. The little tufted wedges flicked with sensitive delight as I scratched behind them, all the while kissing her as though making love to her mouth. 

When I finally pulled away Azeri was a panting, slobbery mess. She stared at me, her face pink, her chest heaving, as I I positioned myself between her legs and ran the head of my erection against her sex. She was wet with her juices and my saliva, her excitement obvious. I flicked her little bump, making her cry out, and then I eased myself into her, making sure she felt every inch as I penetrated her. 

Like before, Azeri went wild beneath me. I felt as though I'd been engulfed in liquid fire and she began rutting her hips up at me as I started to thrust into her. I was gentle at first, but that just seemed to frustrated her. I sat back on my knees and pulled her up on top of me, my arms crossed behind her back, to make her feel more in control. But really I was the one in charge, bouncing her up and down as I thrust myself deep into her.

Azeri rested her face on my shoulder, her long hair slick with sweat against the skin of my chest, and began to make a strange sound I didn't immediately recognise.

She was weeping.

“Azeri, are you alright?”

“Please,” she said. “Please don't stop.”

I'd never had a woman cry on me during sex before and with her clinging to me and sobbing my name into the crook of my neck I started ploughing her like a madman. She ground her hips against mine, meeting my every desperate thrust, her bushy tail sticking straight up in the air behind her. 

I could tell Azeri was getting close. Her pussy was growing even hotter around my shaft and I knew I couldn't hold out for long, either.

Then, my face buried in the pungent wet forest of her hair, I cried out and came inside her. Azeri echoed my cry with her own and I knew she'd been keeping herself from coming so we could reach our pleasure together. 

“Oh god, oh god,” she gasped again and again as she pushed her hips against mine, milking me of every spurt, and squeezed her shivering body against me.

“Azeri, Azeri,” I panted, out of my mind with the white wash of pleasure still crashing across it. “Azeri, I love you, I love you!”

She lifted her face to look at me. Her eyes were wide and vulnerable, her top lip quivering. 

“Y-you you love me?”

I blinked at her. Shit. What had I said? Did I really love her? 

Did it matter? What mattered was whether she believed I did.

I smiled and leaned forward. Our lips met and I kissed her, a deep, hungry kiss that took her breath away. She pulled me on top of her and we lay there, kissing, as I grew soft inside her.

At last she rolled off me, gasping, and I came free of her. She lay her head on my chest and looked up at me, her eyes glowing. 

“I love you too,” she whispered.

I guess I can be very convincing when I want to be.

\---------------------------------

Azeri called in sick the next morning and we spent the day together. We made love again, many times, until we collapsed from exhaustion into each other's arms. Even with her wanting to do it “fox style”, with a long prelude of chasing and wrestling, I found I could keep up with her. Limitless reservoirs of energy were coming from somewhere, and I wondered if it wasn't that intoxicating aroma that clung to her, to the bed, to the house and now even to myself. 

We took breaks for snacks, but when dinnertime came at last, Azeri insisted on preparing it. I watched her cut the meat with her with unsure hands – well, butchering it might have been a better way to put it. But the sight of her trying so hard to please me made my heart ache.

I pushed such sentimental feelings away. I had to get her close to me, bond to me enough to trust me for my plan to work. Everything else was just a distraction.

But it was hard to be so cold blooded, especially after all the pleasure we had shared, the long hours of just lying together, enjoying the warmth of each other's bodies.

At last she finished. She threw the knife and the chopping board into the sink and washed her hands. I took the plates and glasses and set the table.

She sat at the usual place she always did at dinner, but tonight I sat across from her. As usual, I poured her drink for her, but when I went to pour my own Azeri stopped me with a gentle hand on mine.

“Please, let me,” she said. 

We sat and ate and drank and talked about nothing particular. We soon came to dessert and Azeri brought the fruit to the table. The liquor flowed freely and we seemed to be in no rush to finish the meal, lingering over the sliced fruit and berries. 

I was surprised at how normal this felt. It was almost like we were an old married couple.

I went to collect the empty plates and Azeri insisted on helping. I watched in alarm as she built a little tower of the crockery and tipsily juggled them into the kitchen.

I shook my head. I'd been enslaved too long. I was watching her with the critical eye of a professional butler.

When she returned she grabbed her drink and took my hand. But before the sofa she hesitated. She glanced across at me, her face shy. 

“Why don't we go to the rooftop? The weather is beautiful at the moment.”

“There's a rooftop?”

Azeri frowned. “You haven't been outside once, have you, since you came here?”

I shook my head.

“Well,” she said, her face shifting to a grin. “You must promise not to throw yourself off the roof in an escape attempt. We're very high up.”

Still holding my hand, she took me to the door. After staring at the keypad for a few moments, she realised she had no hand free, dropped mine regretfully and handed me her glass.

Her fingers slipped over the pad with the over-concentration of the drunk, but at last the door dilated open.

She led me up a small set of stairs to a door, which she waved a hand in front of. It dilated and we passed through into a wall of warm air. It smelled different and I wondered what it was.

The air was fresh. I'd been living inside in recirculated air for so long I'd forgotten what it smelled like. 

It was the cusp of night. The sun had set, but the horizon still glowed orange although the sky above and behind us was already black with the night and studded with a thousand points of light. The city spread out before us, the fairytale skyline of minarets and towers black except for the ones closest to the bay, where they still glowed with cooling copper lit by the hidden sun. 

Azeri led me by the hand to the edge of the rooftop and I handed her her glass, “It's been a long time since I've been up here,” she said, staring out over the city towards the bay. “I used to come up here all the time just to watch the aerosondes, wondering where the people in them were going. I guess I had a lot more free time back then. Before the war, I mean.” 

She turned toward me. Her hair blew about her face in the onshore breeze, but despite the wildness of her hair, her expression was subdued, gentle, so different from that fierce vixen I'd met at the employment centre.

God help me, she really was beautiful. 

“Do you hate me, human?” she asked suddenly. 

I laughed. “You're really asking me that, Azeri? After everything that's happened between us?”

Her smile was fragile. “I… I suppose I'm just worried. Maybe all of this is just the result of my estrous. Perhaps vulpine pheromones have some unknown effect on human physiology. Maybe they're forcing you to love me, or something.”

I laughed, hoping it masked my shock at her words. “Azeri, you smell good. But I don't think anyone anywhere smells good enough to have someone fall in love with them just because of that alone.”

She took a step towards me. “So, you do love me?”

I took her hand “I said so, didn't I?”

She glanced away. “You said it in the throes of our… our lovemaking. Sometimes males say things like that.”

“So do females,” I said. 

Azeri's eyes met mine. They glistened from behind their prison of her thick lashes. “I was telling the truth when I said I loved you.” She drew closer to me, pressed her body against mine and rested her chin on my shoulder. “I do not say such words easily, you know. I… I never once told Raboso I loved him. I don't think I did. Love him, I mean...”

“Shh,” I whispered, slipping my arms around her. “You don't have to talk about him.” I coaxed her face from my shoulder, tempting her lips with my own. The sparring became a kiss which quickly turned passionate. 

At last I broke the kiss. Azeri was panting, and I cradled her head in my hands and smiled at her “I'm your mate now, Azeri. You don't have to worry about him any more.”

She gasped, and throwing herself against me she pressed her hungry lips against mine. I took her, made her mine with my kiss while she melted in my arms. 

I've lied to a few women in my time. I'm not proud of the fact. But what was it about lying to Azeri that made me feel like total shit?

It didn't matter. She was the enemy. I pushed the sick feeling from my heart. I still had a lot left to think about.

\----------------------

I carried her back down to her bedroom and for the first time we made love in her bed. Afterwards, she slipped out to take her pill and a shower and I lay there on her bed, staring at the ceiling. My body still glowed with the last ebbs of pleasure. I was surprised by my endurance. I guess Azeri and I were just compatible. 

I knew what I had to do. But I would wait a few days to put my plan into action. There was no rush. Rushing things would ruin everything. 

Azeri slipped back into the room. She was wearing a nightie. She pressed herself against me and I turned to take her into my arms. Her body was warm and smooth, her breasts delightful swellings underneath the silky material. I stroked her and she made a low, deep sound inside her chest, not unlike a purr. I felt the stirrings of excitement again. Jesus Christ, maybe I was undergoing estrous as well. 

But she soon fell asleep. I held her until her breathing grew deep and I figured I could extricate my arm from underneath hers without waking her. 

I had the pin code of the front door. In her tipsiness she'd forgotten to hide it when we went out to go onto the roof. But if I slipped out now there was every chance she'd wake up. No, I had to be patient. 

Azeri murmured and rolled over. Her brush covered my face, the soft, fragrant hair tickling my nose and lips. I turned over before I sneezed. 

The bed was warm and everything smelled of her. I loved her smell. Now that we had made love and she was asleep, it was a calming smell. Even with a lot to think about, I couldn't fight sleep for long.

\----------------

As soon as she woke up, she was atop of me, her nightie pulled up around her hips, her panties drawn aside. She rubbed her wetness against me until I got hard and then she slipped down on top of me. Our lovemaking was a strange mixture of lazy sleepiness and desperate rushing, and it wasn't long before she as crying out, her hot juices spilling out across my belly. 

As she shivered from her climax, I threw her over and ploughed her from behind. I managed about a dozen thrusts before I pumped what felt like a gallon of semen into her.

Azeri lingered as long as she could in bed with me and we indulged in teasing post-coital caresses until her alarm went off. She tore herself away from me and got ready for work. 

While she was pulling on her pantihose she gazed across at me, on the couch and still in my pyjamas.

“What a lazy servant you are,” she said. “But then, you did work very hard this morning. I can forgive a little lack of professionalism this once, I suppose.”

She straightened a crease in her hose and then looked in the mirror on the wall near the door, checking her make-up. She turned and tapped her cheek. I came up and kissed her there and she grabbed me and kissed me hungrily on the mouth. 

At last she pulled herself away, leaving me gasping. 

“Oh god,” she said, her eyes taking on that predatory cast. “If I don't go now, I'm going to push you back down on that couch and fuck your brains out. Then I'll have to change my underwear and do my make-up again and I'll be late.” She stroked my cheek. “See you tonight darling.”

With Azeri gone, I had a shower and got dressed, then sat on the sofa for a long time. It would be hours before she got home. I had more than enough time to do what I had to do. 

\----------------------

When I heard the door to the apartment open, my heart started pounding, but whether it was from anxiety about the plan or from my desire I couldn't tell. I'd spent the day saving myself for her, battling against the sexy smell that permeated the entire living-space. The smell had made me guilty, too, but everything was ready.

Azeri came in. She called my name and I came out of the kitchen where I'd been waiting for her after preparing dinner. She threw her arms around my neck and kissed me.

“I missed you,” she murmured against my neck. She glanced over my shoulder at the dining table. I'd taken pains to set things up nicely. 

Azeri hugged herself tighter to me. “I was planning to grab you and throw you down on the sofa as soon as I got home,” she said. “But I don't want to spoil all your hard work. Shall we have dinner?”

I took her bag from her while she went and freshened up. Over dinner she talked abut her day. I was interested to hear how the war was going. I hadn't felt like watching the television, even though I'd had the time to. 

“...and so no one's really sure exactly what's going on. We keep getting conflicting requests from the central government. So my whole day was spent trying to juggle all of these random orders. It's why my eyes look so puffy..”

I told her I hadn't noticed and she smiled at me. “You're a liar, human. But I forgive you.”

My heart froze. You're a liar.

I refilled her glass and she did the same for me. Azeri took a long drink and then she stood up.

“Mistress?” I said without thinking.

Azeri laughed.”You're terrible at taking orders, too, aren't you? I told you to call em Azeri.” She fixed smouldering eyes on me and began to fumble at the collar of her blouse. “I'm sorry. I'm not going to make it through dinner. I need you now.”

I pushed my chair away from the table. I knew that look on her face. Often, when she was especially horny, Azeri would just up and sprint away and expect me to catch her. I wanted to be ready for her this time. 

She threw her cravat to one side and began to unbutton her blouse. I decided in the interests of saving time I should start taking my clothes off, as well.

The truth was I was insanely horny, too, and I needed to be inside her. I'd been frustrated all day, like some bored housewife waiting for her husband to return. 

She was halfway down her blouse when she ran. I was ready for her. As she made for the corridor I tackled her around the knees and forced her onto the floor. I wrestled her onto her stomach as she snarled and snapped at me. She started kicking out her legs, but I grabbed her ankles and knelt on her calves. She twisted her torso, trying to turn herself around, no doubt to nip at my face, but I seized her hips and held her tight. When she'd exhausted herself, I roughly pulled her pencil skirt up, baring her pantied butt. She was wearing some pretty sexy underwear, white and lacy. She knew I liked them more than the plain cotton ones. They suited her sultry personality better. 

I liked them, but I didn't treat them with any respect. I pulled them aside, dodging the whipping of her brushy tail. The material was sopping. She'd been wet the whole time we'd been eating dinner. I guess she been waiting for me to make a move. 

Well, she wasn't going to be disappointed. I slid three fingers into her and her melodramatic struggles died away. She gasped and wiggled her butt, her brush sticking up in the air. I leaned forward and smelled her tail, delighting in the sexy fragrance, then dove down and buried my face in her sticky sex. Everything got basted by my tongue while she moaned and pushed back against my face. She slid forward, flattening the front of her body while keeping her butt up in the air. I was used to this, now. As soon as she was ready to be mounted, she would present. I don't think it was even a voluntary thing for vulpines. Her body seemed to take over, growing uncharacteristically submissive as she waited to be penetrated. 

I didn't bother to take off my pants. I just unzipped and pulled out my erection and fell upon her, covering her with my body as I rubbed the head along her sopping wet slit. 

Azeri's hips pushed back, and I teased her for as long as I could last. But I was soon sick of the game, my blood boiling sickly in my veins, and I lunged forward, penetrating her up to the hilt.

Azeri cried out. I drew myself out and plunged back inside her in a single, desperate movement, then again, and again. 

There was no finesse to my fucking. I just ploughed into her. She wanted it that way, and I did too. She moaned and panted, her tail shivering against my chest, and I held onto her hips as I pushed her face forward into the carpet with every thrust. 

I saw her pointed ears stick up and I knew she getting close. She lifted her head, a deep purring rumble starting in her chest, and her hips became a blur as she thrust back at me.

I was no longer in control. Azeri was engulfing me, her butt slapping against my pelvis, the chafing of the gusset of her underwear against my dick sublimated into a strange, painful pleasure. 

“Come inside me,” she moaned. “Come inside me, you animal. I need you.”

Her pleading pushed me over the edge. Holding off was impossible now and I tightened my hold on her hips and wrested control back from her. Half a dozen strokes with Azeri sobbing and arching her back while her juices poured down my thighs, I came, and moments later she joined me. My mind went blank, overwhelmed by the pleasure that tore through my body, and I kept fucking her as she grew tighter and spasmed around my shaft, sucking every ounce of semen from me. Even after coming I stayed hard, and I kept thrusting until finally she slumped forward with a shuddering moan and lay there, trembling. 

I slumped down beside her my heart pounding in my chest. I drew in hard, shuddering breaths. Azeri, panting herself, rolled over to face me. She buried her tear-stained face into my chest and I held her while her body trembled with the last waves of her climax. 

She looked up at me with her dark eyes glistening, but she said nothing. She didn't have to. I knew what she left unsaid, what the tears in those eyes meant. 

I held her until she fell asleep. I drew my arms from around her and she muttered in complaint. She moved her legs and pulled up her brushy tail between them so that she was holding it against her chest and face. I'd often seen her do it. I guess it was comforting to her.

I lay there beside her, listening to her breathing, smelling the thick scent of our lovemaking, and stared up at the ceiling. 

There was nothing to do now but wait.

\-------------

I woke to find the floor empty beside me. I heard Azeri in the bathroom, the clink of a glass and the flow of water from the tap. I waited, my heart pounding. There. The sound of drinking, water poured back into the sink. She'd taken her medicine. 

So that was it, then. 

She came back and knelt beside me. She'd brought a blanket and covered the two of us. I feigned sleep. She leaned down and brought her lips against my cheek, then lay beside me and embraced me from behind. I felt her press her face against my naked back, felt the softness of her whiskers, and after a while wetness. 

But not the wetness of a kiss. Wetness from tears as she pressed her eyes against my skin and clung to me, as though we were stranded in the ocean and I was the one thing keeping her afloat.

I waited. Luckily, she fell asleep quickly. Then I waited some more. It would take the sleeping pills a while to take hold. Impatience would ruin everything.

An eternity passed, though it couldn't have been longer than half an hour. Her breathing became deep, deeper than usual. I slid myself out from her arms and slipped away. Azeri did not move. 

I went to her room and got one of her hoodies and put it on. It was dark outside, and the hood should obscure my face enough to remain unidentified if anyone glanced in my direction. I would have to stay off the street, though. I'd learned from the news that there were sympathisers in the city, therians who were helping humans to escape back to Earth. Several had been arrested. They hid human escapees underground, in the sewers. That was my destination. 

I shoved some bottled water and food in my pockets, then went to the door. I stopped there, hesitating like a fool. I glanced across at Azeri's deeply sleeping body. 

My plan had worked. While she'd been at the office, I'd ground up some of the sleeping pills and replaced the contents of the gel caps of her contraceptive drug. I'd given her about three times the normal dose. It was safe enough, I knew. The threshold for overdosing on any drug was far higher. But she would sleep deep enough that I could sneak away.

I turned to move towards the door but then I looked back at her. I couldn't leave like this. I slipped back and knelt by her body. Her hair was covering her face and I gently brushed it away. God, she was beautiful. In another time, another place, I…

Stupid to think like that. I leaned down and kissed her cheek. 

“Goodbye, Azeri.”

I was at the door when I heard her move. I swung around. Azeri had pulled herself up onto an elbow. Her eyes were open.

I fought off panic. I could just punch the sequence and be out of there. But the alarm was a simple phonecall away. Shit. I should have got rid of her phone. You fool!

Azeri looked at me. There was no trace of sleepiness in her eyes. The look on her face I couldn't divine. She placed a hand under the blanket and brought out something for me to see.

Gel caps. Two of them, resting in the palm of her hand.

“You knew,” I said. 

Azeri nodded. “You forgot about the vulpine sense of smell. As soon as I took out the medicine I could smell it wasn't the same. But your smell was everywhere in the cabinet anyway, a nervous smell.”

My heart was pounding. What the hell was going to happen now? I should sound remorseful. It was easy. I felt remorseful. “I'm sorry, Azeri.” 

Azeri shook her head. Her eyes glistened. “I… I wondered what I should do, whether I should confront you about it. But I wanted to know. To know whether you really loved me. I thought maybe you would have second thoughts.” She chuckled. “I guess it was all just wishful thinking. After I let you see the code and you didn't try and leave straight away, I actually thought you might love me. Stupid.”

I took a step forward, but she raised a hand for me to stop. “No. There's no need, human. I don't hate you. I love you, you know. I can't just stop loving you. I don't blame you for wanting to escape. Who wants to spend their life cooped up in here with me?” A tear slipped down her cheek. 

“Azeri, I-”

Azeri shook her head. “Go. Once you're on the main street, walk to the left until you come to a big bridge. There's a place underneath it where you can get into the sewers. It's locked and barred, but you're resourceful. I'm sure you'll be able to work something out. Go find the underground. They'll get you home, if anyone can.”

She lifted her hand to her lips, popped the gel caps in her mouth and swallowed with a grimace.

“What are you doing?”

Azeri smiled at me. Her face was sad, but that smile still held the ghost of the teasing, affectionate smile I'd grown to love. “You idiot. There'll be an investigation when I report you missing. They'll test my blood and find the drug in it. It'll be just another story of a therian who was too trusting around her servant, who didn't take the right precautions.” She closed her eyes. “Now go. I release you. You are no longer my servant.”

I hesitated.

“Go!” cried Azeri, and then she rolled over, bringing her brush up between her legs and hugging it to her chest.

The sight broke my heart. I turned and punched the code into the door. It dilated open and I fled without looking back.

\----------------------------

I sometimes wonder what it would have been like for her, waking up at last from that deep, drugged sleep, the slow, groggy recollection of what had happened slowly filtering back. Would she have looked about for me, still hoping beyond hope that I'd stayed? Would she have cried?

She would have cried. Hell, I was crying as I ran down that corridor. My cheeks and eyes were wet and hot as I waited for the elevator. And when it arrived after an agonising eternity of waiting, I let the door open and then close again before going back. 

Azeri slept for a very long time. I'd calculated the dosage well. I lay down beside her, hugging her from behind as she'd held me earlier. This time it was my tears that were wetting her back. 

At last she stirred. She murmured and sneezed and clutched her brush closer to herself. Only after a long while did full consciousness return to her and she noticed me. 

She rolled over and stared. I stared back. I was still sick with regret and I knew if I tried to smile it would be some horrible, fake smile that no one wants to wake up to.

She murmured my name. Then she said, “A dream.”

I shook my head. I drew her closer. Her hands rose to my face, traced it as she continued to stare. 

“Can you feel in a dream?” she asked.

I took her hands and shook my head. “No,” I said. “No Azeri, this is no dream.”

“Why?” she whispered. “Why didn't you go home?” 

The smile that came to my face, then, as I drew her hands to my lips and kissed them, was a true one. 

“I'm already home” I said.

\---------------------------------

The war was over. On the TV was a report about mixed therian-human couples and their children. As we watched, I cuddled Azeri closer to me. Despite her size, she was still able to be the little spoon. The only problem was her brush, which kept blocking my view of the TV. But I was getting used to it.

The reporter was interviewing a female dragonnewt and her human partner. He was holding their child, a sweet little creature with a tiny version of his mother's horns and a miniature forked tail that flicked back and forth as he held on to his father and stared at the reporter with that mixture of wonder and confusion that all babies have.

“So cute,” murmured Azeri, pulling my arms closer around her.

“He sure is,” I said. “Who knew that humans would end up being able to produce children with every kind of therian?”

Azeri laughed. “It still makes me laugh that sex essentially ended the war. I mean, there's no need for slavery when we're undergoing a baby-boom, is there?”

The reporter was talking to another couple now, a male lupine and his human wife. As they answered her questions they had to wrestle their furry twins to keep them from running away.

“Lupines and humans make such pretty babies don't you think?” said Azeri with a sigh. 

I agreed. “Far less fur and human eyes, but they still have those pointed ears and tail.”

Azeri drew my hands down onto her stomach. Beneath the material I could feel the hard swelling of her belly.

She squeezed my hands tight. “Do you think our kits will have ears and tails like that?”

“I'm not sure,” I said, kissing the back of her neck. “But I do know they'll be the cutest kits in the world.”

The End


End file.
